Harrock House Lodge including gate pier

Summary

The former entrance lodge to Buxted Rectory (now Harrock House), constructed for the Reverend Henry Kingsmill probably around 1851, in Picturesque Gothic style.

Reasons for Designation

Harrock House Lodge, built around 1851, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a well-designed, well-crafted and largely unaltered example of an entrance lodge in Picturesque Gothic style;
* for its varied and asymmetrical composition and the quality of materials and detailing;
* for the survival of key ground-floor rooms, particularly the panelled living room and oratory extension, which display the lodge's historic association with Buxted Rectory.

Group value:
* with the Grade II* listed Harrock House, for which the Lodge was originally constructed.

History

From the late C17 until the early C20, lodges and gatehouses were built at the entrances to large country estates. Their purpose was two-fold: they provided security but also gave visitors and passers-by visual clues as to the quality of the house beyond the gates. While some lodges hinted at the formal architectural character of the associated houses, others were built later in a more picturesque style, particularly in the mid-C19.

Harrock House (NHLE: 1028440; Grade II*) was originally built as a rectory around 1694, incorporating parts of an earlier house. It continued this use until the C20 when the house and associated estate were sold. Between 1965 and 1985 Harrock House was used as a residential centre by the Dame Alice Owen’s school, and was subsequently occupied by St Nicholas Day Preparatory School until 1994, when the house and its lodge were sold in separate lots.

The building at the southern entrance to the estate, now known as Harrock House Lodge, appears to date from the mid-C19. In 1846, Reverend Henry Kingsmill (1811-1877) took over as rector of Buxted and moved into the rectory at Harrock House. Around 1851 he undertook a phase of refurbishments to the house, as well as reconfiguring the grounds to include a tree-lined axial driveway extending north from Station Road. It is likely that the lodge, which bears Kingsmill’s coat of arms, was constructed during this same phase of works.

The building as originally constructed first appears on the one-inch Ordnance Survey (OS) map published in 1874. It had an asymmetrical plan with linear ranges extending from the south-west and north-west corners; the latter had been demolished and replaced with a modern conservatory by about 2006. A small, offset extension to the north-east corner was added around the turn of the C20 to house an oratory. This may have coincided with the rector at that time choosing to live in the lodge rather than the main house; a 1921 sale particular notes that the rector was occupying the lodge at that time. By the mid-C20 the lodge had been subdivided into two distinct dwellings, which resulted in some internal reconfiguration, but since a sale of the building around 1996 it has been refurbished as a single home. The 1996 sale advert describes the floors and roof as new.

Details

A one-and-a-half storey dwelling in Picturesque Gothic style, thought to have been constructed around 1851 as the entrance lodge to Harrock House, built for the Reverend Henry Kingsmill who occupied Harrock House at that time.

MATERIALS: external walls of uncoursed sandstone construction (probably Horsham stone), with ashlar window dressings, some upper areas hung with tiles; a mixture of peg tiles and fish-scale tiles to the roofs.

PLAN: the building is irregular and asymmetrical on plan. The principal range is approximately rectangular on plan, with projecting bays and gables, including a small, offset extension containing an oratory to the north-east corner added around the turn of the C20. On the ground floor of this range are a dining room, a living room and a study. Extending south from the west side of the building is a linear range (from now on referred to as the west range) containing the kitchen at ground-floor level. According to historic Ordnance Survey maps this was originally mirrored by a similar range extending north into the rear garden. This range has since been demolished and there is now a modern conservatory to the west elevation. On the first floor there is a bathroom and three bedrooms (one with an attached dressing room) within the principal range. The south-west bedroom leads to another dressing room and bathroom within the west range.

EXTERIOR: the building has external walls constructed of sandstone supporting multiple pitched and gabled roofs covered with a mixture of plain peg tiles and fish-scale tiles. The south elevation faces the A272 and is flanked by gable ends, that to the west kitchen range projecting forward so that this elevation forms an L-shape. The ground-floor is of uncoursed stone while the upper floor is hung with tiles. The upper levels of both gable ends are half-timbered and have wavy bargeboards of timber to the eaves and a casement window to each. In the corner of the L-shape is a triangular dormer, also with wavy bargeboards framing a tripartite, Gothic window with timber plate tracery. This window is flanked by a pair of raking half-dormers with casement windows. Below the triangular window is an open porch with timber posts and curvilinear braces supporting a tiled canopy, and below the east gable end is a canted bay window. Another prominent feature of this elevation is the twin chimney stack, constructed from the same stone as the walls and slightly truncated (historic photos show that the original was topped with an oversailing ‘parapet’).

The other principal elevation faces east over the driveway to Harrock House. There is a prominent, central gable end of similar design as those to the south elevation (but not timbered), with a bay window to the ground floor, a casement window above, and between them a diamond-shaped plaque of stone bearing the Reverend Kingsmill’s monogram. To the south is a small casement window at ground floor and a full, half-timbered and gableted dormer window above, carried on three moulded corbels of stone. The entrance door to this elevation is sheltered by a tiled canopy built into the corner formed by the projecting gable. This elevation is largely of stone construction, with a small section of hung tiles between the central gable and the oratory extension. The latter extension was added around the turn of the C20 but of similar stone construction, with a tiled roof over a pointed Gothic window.

The north elevation facing the rear garden has several catslide roofs, a partly rendered first-floor dormer extension with a secondary chimney stack, and at ground floor another bay window and gabled porch similar in design to the other features on the principal elevations. The west elevation is the most altered, with the demolished rear range exposing rendered walls at ground-floor level and hung tiles above. Fenestration comprises casement windows that might be modern replacements.

INTERIOR: most of the ground-floor rooms have dado panelling topped with a shallow shelf. There is modern wooden flooring throughout the ground floor (although the conservatory floor is tiled) and the timber staircase also appears to be a modern replacement. The dining room and the study retain corner fireplaces that share a chimney stack; that to the study has an apparently original stone mantelpiece with decorative scrollwork. The grandest room is the living room, which is Gothic in character. This room has dark stained timber panelling to dado level and to the deeply-recessed bay windows, which incorporate fine joinery and built-in shelving to the returns. The exposed ceiling beams are also of dark stained timber. The living room has an original brick fireplace and a stone mantlepiece decorated with a pair of millrind motifs, an element of the Kingsmill family crest. In one corner of this room is the early C20 oratory extension, a tiny chapel-like space with a pointed Gothic window with geometrical tracery. On the opposite side of the room is a small, cross-shaped window allowing visibility of visitors approaching the east entrance to the lodge. The first-floor rooms appear to have been recently refurbished and modernised, but there is some surviving dado shelving and plank-and-batten doors.

The modern conservatory attached to the north-west of the building is excluded from the listing.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: immediately south-east of the lodge on the west side of the driveway leading to Harrock House is one of the original stone gate piers. This is of similar construction to the lodge (irregularly-shaped stone blocks). The pier has chamfered corners and a moulded, stone coping.

Sources

Books and journals
Nicholas, Antram, Nikolaus, Pevsner, The Buildings of England Sussex: East (2012), 298
The Property Market: on the future for larger houses in Country Life, ,Vol. 188, (6 January 1994), 63

Other
East Sussex Record Office: AMS 7108/88 sales particular for Buxted Rectory (1922)
East Sussex Record Office: BMW/A/2/325 valuation books (1921)

End of official list entry